Health Patterns of the Ennea Type 5 (Enneagram Series)

I wanted to talk to you today about health patterns of Ennea Type 5, the “Observer” or the “Expert”.

So Type 5s might come in [to our practice] for just about anything. They are extremely curious kinds of people and they are open to thinking outside the box, so they really are attracted to the alternate medicine of acupuncture. But I will tell you that what I generally find is really going on — regardless of what they are really coming and asking help for– is weak digestive energy. We find Type 5 to be very mellow people.

This is not a high energy kind of person.

They are really chill in their demeanour and they never report having an abundance of energy. They are for the most part kind of pushing their selves through the day.

So I take a look immediately at digestive energy because what is going on in our digestion is fueling all the processes of the body. It’s interesting to consider that intellectual energy – the use of the mind, the use of the brain and analytical thinking – draws very much on digestive energy.

So the way that we are eating has a lot of to do with how much energy we have, but also the overthinking (and what we ruminating thought) can weaken digestive energy very much. This will lead to secondary problems of low immune functions and then what we call a “Yang deficiency”. That Yang energy is get-up-and-go energy and 5’s are really lacking it.

In men this can translate as low testosterone; for women sometimes we can see hair loss.

So what we are working on is boosting energy but also helping the 5’s have more control over how much time every day they are putting into intellectualizing things.

Where I would really love to see 5’s do more of is live in their body. Becoming more consistently physical is important for the 5. Most 5’s report feeling so uplifted and invigorated by getting out in nature… which is interesting because usually they are in a chair behind their computer.

So 5’s please follow your impulse: get up and out into the world as often as you can. Exercise is really important to help balance that mental energy.

Also… Type 5’s are also just funky about their habits.
They have got their favorite behaviors and they are always so eccentric.

5’s will eat the same food for 5 weeks in a row and nothing else… Or they will stay up until 4 in the morning every night because they are researching something in the middle of the night. 5’s have these impulses towards extremism.

So what I encourage the 5 to do is to take a look at this and be willing to be more moderate in how you are eating, how you are spending your time.

In terms of acupuncture I am using points that are going to boost energy, boost mental energy, boost testosterone in men. We want to see more energy and more consistent rhythms for the body.

If you are interested in learning more about acupuncture and your temperament and how those 2 can intersect please give me a call: I would love to work with you.